Quickstart

This takes about three minutes.

1. Create an account

Sign up in the console and verify your email. Your $0.50 starter credit is added once the email is verified.

2. Create a key

In the console, go to API Keys → Create and copy the key. It starts with tkn_ (older keys start with sk- or thetoken_ and keep working). The key is shown only once: TOKEN stores only a hash of it. If you lose it, use Rotate key to get a new one (the old key stops working).

Keep the key in an environment variable. Every sample in these docs reads TOKEN_API_KEY:

export TOKEN_API_KEY="tkn_..."

3. Send a request

Any model from the models page works; this one is fast and cheap.

curl

curl https://api.thetoken.dev/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "zai-org/glm-5.3-flash",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Write a haiku about failover."}]
  }'

Python

pip install openai

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(base_url="https://api.thetoken.dev/v1", api_key=os.environ["TOKEN_API_KEY"])

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="zai-org/glm-5.3-flash",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a haiku about failover."}],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)
print(response.usage)

TypeScript

npm install openai

import OpenAI from 'openai'

const client = new OpenAI({ baseURL: 'https://api.thetoken.dev/v1', apiKey: process.env.TOKEN_API_KEY })

const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
  model: 'zai-org/glm-5.3-flash',
  messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Write a haiku about failover.' }],
})
console.log(response.choices[0].message.content)
console.log(response.usage)

4. Check the result

The response looks like this (the text, IDs and token counts differ on every call):

{
  "id": "chatcmpl-0c5d2a7e9b",
  "object": "chat.completion",
  "created": 1761379200,
  "model": "zai-org/glm-5.3-flash",
  "choices": [
    {
      "index": 0,
      "message": {
        "role": "assistant",
        "content": "One road closes down,\nthe next one is already lit:\nthe message arrives."
      },
      "finish_reason": "stop"
    }
  ],
  "usage": {
    "prompt_tokens": 16,
    "completion_tokens": 412,
    "total_tokens": 428,
    "prompt_tokens_details": { "cached_tokens": 0 }
  }
}

• usage.prompt_tokens and usage.completion_tokens are what you are billed for, at the model’s listed price. usage.prompt_tokens_details.cached_tokens shows the input tokens billed at the cached price.
• completion_tokens includes the model’s reasoning. Reasoning models may also return their reasoning text in message.reasoning_content.
• model is the name reported by the provider that answered; its spelling can differ from the name you sent. Billing and the console use the name you sent.
• The console’s Usage Logs show the cost of every request.

Next steps

• Stream the reply as it is written: Streaming.
• Use TOKEN from your tools: Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, OpenCode, LangChain.
• What each error means and how to retry: Errors and rate limits.